Antidote Overview

Antidote is a complete set of software reference tools for writing French. Tools include an advanced grammar checker which corrects the whole text at once, an important collection of ten dictionaries, and an interactive compendium of grammar rules. Seamlessly integrated with major word processors and email programs, Antidote’s tools are available instantaneously right from your text. The new edition of Antidote is here, with more than 90 new features for its French-language resources. And there’s something new that many of you have been waiting for: English.

Features of Antidote 9

A Corrector With Style
• Antidote 9 brings a new dimension to its corrections: the Style view. It has been carefully calibrated to flag instances of repetition, awkward constructions and poor vocabulary choices. It can now correct the format of numbers and spot missing periods at the end of a paragraph. Dialogues in a text can now be identified and treated differently, with the option to ignore certain detections within them. The corrector will remember any ignored detections, allowing you to pick up exactly where you left off when working with a long document.

Richer, More Connected Dictionaries
• As soon as you open the dictionaries, the new details panel to the right of the definitions is sure to catch your eye. It is both more concise and more comprehensive, comprising three elements: Details, Difficulty and More. Under Details you will find inflected forms, word frequency, etymology and indispensable phonetic information. The Difficulty section, present in 30,000 French entries, tackles the trickier aspects of the language such as past participle agreement for reflexive verbs. Instances of phonetic liaison are indicated for all words that feature it, for example the “t” sound in the expression grand homme. The More section provides direct access to powerful external resources like Le grand dictionnaire terminologique and Termium; you can even add your own favourite sites.
• Eleven thousand Web links lead to maps and satellite images of countries, cities and World Heritage sites. More than 15,000 new words have been added, such as claquade, egoportrait and vapoter, along with 4000 expressions, 5000 synonyms, 39,000 combinations and 600,000 new links in the semantic fields. The semantic fields now extend to proper nouns, painting a fascinating picture of famous people, cities and countries. The history dictionary shows etymologically related words for every entry, revealing some surprising links, such as tueur and tuteur, both descended from the Latin word tueri. Also on offer are three new search criteria and two new ways to search as you type.

After French Comes English
• For the first time, Antidote is lending its science to another language. An optional module adds a corrector, dictionaries and language guides for English—all with the same level of richness and quality as their French counterparts. Each of the English resources in Antidote rivals its competitors in the English-speaking world: The corrector can pinpoint 13,000 types of error through its three correction views and its two-hundred revision, statistics and inspection filters; the dictionaries cover 94,000 words, 1.4 million synonyms, 69,000 etymologies 150,000 phonetic transcriptions, 700,000 combinations and 2.3 million semantic field links; and the ten guides contain 350 detailed articles on grammar and business writing. All the settings are tailored to English and English words can be added to the personal dictionaries. Anti-Oops! protects English emails against mistakes and missing attachments.
• Naturally, Antidote for English was designed for French speakers too. The corrector recognizes hundreds of common Francophone errors such as take a decision or I have 18 years. Additionally, it takes special care to ensure that both languages coexist effortlessly. The same three-button menu bar will open resources in either language from your word processor or email application—Antidote chooses the appropriate language according to the context. Whenever necessary, the corrector alternates between French and English in the same document and displays its results accordingly. The dictionaries and guides can also switch fluidly between languages: search fluidement and you will see results in the French dictionary; search fluidly and the English dictionary will take its place.